


United We Stand, Devided We Fall

by Rijkje



Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Action & Romance, F/F, Inspired by The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game), The Final Season, twdg - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-02 02:45:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19190344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rijkje/pseuds/Rijkje
Summary: “Uh, hey… What did you want to talk about?”“Just that uh… you know. I don’t blame you, and shit. And uh… yeah. I’ll try everything I can so you… you know. Can stay,” Violet stuttered.“Oh okay. Thanks. Also, thanks for last night by the way. Backing me up and all.”“Yeah… no problem.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uh, hey! Thank you for checking out this page! Here I will provide some information about the story you're about to read.
> 
> So, the first 20k words could be considered novelization of the game, but with many altered and added scenes. It starts at the beginning of episode two, and things are told from Violet's perspective, rather than Clementine's. It will focus on Violet's emotions and thoughts a lot, seeing as I always found her a really interesting character myself. I always pictured that she was a lot more playful, open and joking then she shows on the outside, because of her experiences with Minerva, of course. Anyway, I'll stop talking now so you can actually start reading. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :)

_It had been so long since we've met any people. All we've ever done is lose them. That was until we heard an explosion just outside of our safe zone perimeter. Marlon and I ran as hard as we could towards the source of the sound and witnessed a car crashing into a rock and flipping multiple times. We figured that all the passengers inside would be dead, but when we got there, we found a girl around our age and a small boy. Both were still breathing. We took them to the school, but it wasn't looking good for the girl._

_But they woke up and they found they’d been saved by a guy named Marlon. The leader of our community living inside an old boarding school.  For them, it felt like a chance at having a home. A real one. They took me and Louis back to the train station, to see if any good survived the explosion. But someone else had the same idea. When AJ distracted him, Clementine shoved him into a pack of walkers._

_Clementine found Marlon and Brody in the basement that night, arguing about the man we’d seen. And she learned why Brody was so afraid. The man was part of a group of raiders Marlon and her had run into a year ago. Marlon traded Tennessee’s older sisters to the raiders, to keep himself safe. He attacked Brody and locked Clementine in the basement with her. When Brody turned, Clementine had to stop her._

_Marlon stole AJ’s gun and tried to convince us that Clementine had murdered Brody. I immediately backed Clementine up when the truth was revealed. When Marlon lowered his guard, Clementine attacked him and made him drop the gun. She was planning on locking him in the basement. But then…_

_Marlon was dead… and AJ pulled the trigger._

_He remembered what Clementine taught him._

_Always save the last bullet for yourself._

 

>>> 

 

Violet woke up the next morning, immediately swearing under her breath after recalling last night’s events. How could a seemingly normal day turn into one of the worst ones the school had ever suffered? The blonde didn’t know how to feel. She, _obviously_ , had a liking for Clementine, being a disastrous lesbian and all, but she didn’t know how to feel about _this_.

Yes, Marlon was terrible for the thing that he’d done. Not only did he lie to everyone at the school last night, he traded away the twins, for his _own_ safety.

_Minnie…_

Violet tensed up at the thought of her girlfriend, or _ex-girlfriend_ , who she had mourned for over a year. Marlon made her believe that she was dead, but now she knew better. Minnie was possibly still alive, but did that really mean anything? Would Minerva still be the same person as she was over a year ago? Without a doubt her time at the raiders’ camp must have changed her, probably for the worst. _If_ she’d run into Minerva again, would Minnie still expect them to be girlfriends?

But then there’s Clementine… As soon Violet and her fought off the walkers together in the forest, the blonde immediately knew that she was falling for the brunette. _Falling hard._ She was extremely bad at controlling those emotions, though.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
Even though Violet was very inexperienced with the entire relationship thing, she knew what she was feeling. She felt the dire need to use Clementine’s thighs as earmuffs, as inappropriate as that was. She wouldn’t have even known that was a thing if it wasn't for the endless supply of information in the magazines that she'd found in a drawer of Mr. Ericson's desk.

She needed, and _wanted_ , to get het emotions under control.

_Okay… So, as soon as I figure out that I have a crush on the new girl at the school, it turns out that my girlfriend, who I thought had been dead for over a year, turns out to possibly be alive. That's marvelous, isn't it?_

Violet rubbed circles on her temples with her fingertips before getting up from the bed and making her way outside. She would sit in her room and sulk about everything that happened yesterday, but there were things that needed to be done. First and foremost, digging graves for Marlon and Brody. Then, she’d have to address Clementine’s situation with the other kids. While she thought what Clementine, well, _AJ,_ did was justified, she highly doubted that some of the other kids would feel the same.

She made her way outside onto the courtyard and saw that a small circle of kids had already formed around Marlon’s body. Violet immediately felt bad for not moving him last night. While he may have turned out to be an absolute asshole, leaving his corpse in the rain had been beyond disrespectful.

“We need to dig a grave for him. I’ll get the cups,” Willy said after he wiped away some of the tears on his face.

“Yeah… we can’t stand here crying all day. We have to do something. And we better kick that fucking girl and her little lunatic out the second they set one step outside of the fucking dorms,” Mitch angrily said as he slammed his first down on the table. “None of the shit would’ve happened if they didn’t show up.”

“Mitch, that’s just not true. We would’ve run into those raiders anyway; they were _looking_ for us. If anything, he may have traded you,” Violet retorted.

“Well, it’s not like we’ll ever know, will we? They fucking showed up and the first memorable thing they do is put a bullet inside our leader’s brain,” Mitch spat back at the blonde, who just scowled in return.

_No fucking use in arguing with him. It’s like talking to a fucking brick._

Violet just threw her hands up in defeat, _and_ annoyance, and walked over towards the graveyard. She grabbed some of the wood planks they had salvaged from the part of the school that burned down at some point. It’s how poor Tenn got those scars. Aasim was, once again, playing with fire, but it escalated. The building caught fire and Tenn got stuck inside. The blonde hadn’t hesitated for a single second and ran inside to save the boy from a horrible fate. After she’d found him and was running with him in her arms to get him outside, a bunch of debris fell on her ankle, which is why she has to wear a brace at all times now. Aasim had felt so bad about the situation that he swore off playing with fire for good. It took two of his friends becoming injured for him to finally realize that playing with fire was perhaps _not_ the best idea _._

“Fucking stupid ass brace,” Violet murmured under her breath as she started making crosses to put on Marlon’s and Brody’s graves. After she was done, she carved their names into them with the knife that Mitch had crafted the night before. She placed them down on the ground and looked at them for a second or two. While they weren’t exactly pieces of art, they would most certainly get the job done. She looked back over her shoulder when she heard some people approaching her, and saw that some of the kids at returned, carrying a bunch of cups.

“Let’s get started. Remember, we’re digging one for Brody, too,” Ruby said as she handed a cup to Violet. The blonde let out a sigh but took the cup, nonetheless. As much as she despised the guy with a dead cat for hair now, he did do a lot for her in the past and he deserved to be treated with respect. And of course, Brody deserved a proper burial; she just got caught up in Marlon’s shit.

Louis had carried over Marlon’s and Brody’s bodies and placed them inside the graves. After having filled the grave back up and having placed the crosses on top of it, Violet turned to Tenn and walked towards him.

“Hey, buddy. Could you get Clem and AJ for the funeral?”

Tennessee threw her a hesitating glance, but eventually nodded when he recalled that the funeral wasn’t just for Marlon. Clementine and AJ knew Brody. Tenn understood that they didn’t _want_ to shoot Marlon, but AJ probably hadn’t seen another solution. To him, it must have looked like someone was threatening his guardian, and he also knew that AJ would do anything to protect her.

After a few minutes, Violet saw the trio walking outside. Her insides immediately twisted when she saw how Clementine walked across the courtyard. She looked upset, full of grief and regret, but still very confident as well. She just had this certain aura that made the blonde’s mind race with fantasies.

_Come on dude, get over yourself. This is supposed to be a damn funeral. Now is not the moment to be thinking about Clementine, and her… her beautiful eyes. And her incredibly cute laugh. Wait, fuck!_

Right when some flowers were put on top the graves of Marlon and Brody, Clementine arrived at the small graveyard.

“Oh, God, they’re here,” Aasim complained as he rolled his head. Violet assumed that he hadn’t really made up his mind yet about the two newcomers, since he did look away right after letting that slip out of his mouth.

“So what? They knew Brody, didn’t they?” Violet immediately shot back at him. Violet just felt the need to protect the brunette in any way she could. It was something she hadn’t felt ever since she lost Minnie.

“Yeah, but Marlon—" Omar started, but Violet cut him off.

“Just leave them alone.”

Violet heard Louis mutter some sort of swear under his breath when he spotted Clementine and AJ walking towards the group of mourning kids. The blonde saw the two having a quiet conversation, but she couldn’t make out anything they were saying.

While Violet secretly hoped that Clementine was telling AJ how cute she thought the blonde was, that was probably, no, _most certainly_ , not the case.

“Tenn, you ready?” Violet asked, eager to get the funeral started to have it over with. She hadn’t exactly figured out her feelings yet and wanted to mourn when she was ready. She needed time to process everything about Marlon, now that her feelings about him were so mixed.

Tenn nodded and walked forward to Brody’s grave and placed down a drawing that he made.

“Brody, you always said you wanted to go to the beach, so, I drew it for you,” he said in his signature monotone, but loving, voice.

Violet gave him a gentle nod of approval before stepping towards Marlon’s grave. She took a deep breath.

“Marlon was…”

She paused. She just wasn’t able to say anything about him, not yet.

“I can’t. Not for Marlon. After what he did to the twins and Brody, I—”

“You didn’t even like Brody! You were always mean to her,” Willy retorted in a voice that was both angry and disappointed. Violet immediately pouted when she realized that he was _somewhat_ right. She did _kind of_ make most of the things up with Brody when they went fishing with Clem earlier, but nobody else really knew about that.

“I can’t. Someone else do it,” Violet finished with a sigh, and she walked to the back of the lines.

“Bitch,” Mitch muttered without any hesitation.

“Dude, don’t,” Louis desperately said. The last thing he wanted was more fights within the group. While he didn’t agree with AJ’s actions or understand them, more conflict in the group was the last thing they needed right now.

“Seriously, Louis? He was your best friend. He wasn’t perfect, but he deserved better than to get gunned down by that kid. AJ killed him like it was nothing!” Mitch said as he started walking towards the duo, who were still watching the scene unfold from a distance. His threatening posture immediately alerted Violet, and she readied herself just in case she needed to step in. But she was absolutely taken aback when Clementine spoke back to him.

“You’re right, Mitch. Marlon didn’t deserve what AJ did to him.”

“I know what I did. I’m sorry,” AJ added, “I know I’m a murderer. But I’m gonna a… a…”

He looked at the ground with a pained glance.

“Atone,” Clementine whispered.

“Yeah. Atone it,” he finished.

“Fuck, I can’t listen to this,” Louis said as he shook his head. He immediately started walking away and went inside the school after passing Clementine and AJ, who looked at him with a sorrowful expression.

“What I did was bad, and I’m gonna make it up to you. I promise,” AJ said, now returning his attention back to the remaining kids.

Violet couldn’t believe what she was hearing. AJ and Clementine were taking the blame, even though they were the ones caught up in _Marlon’s_ bullshit, not the other way around. They shouldn’t be taking the blame for something they’re not guilty of. Marlon had it coming.

“You don’t have to make up shit!” Violet angrily replied. “Marlon was a fucking murderer, and a liar, and if we’d all asked more questions about Minnie and Sophie disappearing last year, _none_ of this would have happened.”

“She’s got a point,” Aasim said, but he was immediately talked back to by Willy.

“Violet’s right, you all share responsibility for what happened to Sophie and Minnie. And to Brody,” Clementine said, taking a complete 180 degree turn from how she was acting before. Violet assumed that now that she realized she had some backup, she might be able to speak what she actually thought, rather than what the other kids wanted to hear.

“And what about Marlon?” Mitch asked. “Who’s responsible for that?”

AJ looked at the ground with a sad expression once again.

“Me,” he muttered.

“See what I mean? How can any of us trust these fucking people?” Mitch immediately responded.

“What are you saying?” Violet asked, knowing where he was probably headed with this.

“I’m saying they gotta fuckin’ go. We take a vote. Majority decides. They stay, or they leave. Today.”

Those words stung Violet like a bee. She knew some kids would want this and that most people would most likely never forgive AJ or Clementine for what they’d gone, but that didn’t mean it hurt any less. Violet liked Clementine, maybe even in a non-platonic way.

_Fuck… If others go through with this, I won’t even get to really know her. Fuck!_

Clementine dropped her shoulders and sadly looked at her feet. Everyone started talking about how ‘that seemed fair’ and how it’s ‘the only way to settle this.’

“Please, don’t do this! I know you’re angry, but we—” Clementine started.

“You don’t know shit!” Mitch interrupted her. “If you did, you would’ve stopped AJ.”

“Like you stopped Marlon from killing Brody? Fucking hypocrite,” Aasim retorted.

“Fine! I guess we’re fucking voting,” Violet said with poison in her voice. “Louis needs to vote, could you go get him? And, try to talk to him,” she added as her voice turned softer. Tenn nodded and walked off towards the school.

As much as Violet didn’t want to do this, she couldn’t argue with the others. And also, she knew that in the end, this was the fairest way to settle this.

“Could you guys go wait in the dorm? I’ll come get you,” Violet said as she turned around to face Clem and AJ, “But Clem, please stay behind for a second. I want to talk to you about… something.”

Clementine just gave her a sad nod and told AJ to go ahead and wait in the dorms. Violet watched Clementine sit down on the stairs leading towards the admin building and walked over to her.

“So… uh, hi,” Violet awkwardly said as she approached Clementine.

_Jesus, keep it together!_

“Uh, hey… What did you want to talk about?”

“Just that uh… you know. I don’t blame you, and shit. And uh… yeah. I’ll try everything I can so you… you know. Can stay,” Violet stuttered.

“Oh okay. Thanks. Also, thanks for last night by the way. Backing me up and all.”

“Yeah… no problem.”

An awkward silence followed for a few seconds, in which Violet looked at her feet and Clementine fumbled with her fingers. Violet got completely lost in her own world when she felt a soft touch on her hand, and she immediately pulled it back in shock.

When she looked back up, she saw Clementine pulling her hand back and a small blush had crept onto the shorter girl’s face.

 _‘FUCK! She was trying to show appreciation, you dumb cunt! Not just that, but by_ touching _you!’_

“Oh, shit. Sorry,” Violet quickly said. “I didn’t realize.”

“No… no. It’s fine. I shouldn’t have done that without asking,” Clementine nervously laughed.

“No! That’s not it! I just got startled.”

“No problem, Vi. I get it,” the brunette said with a sad expression on her face. Violet’s stomach did a backflip because of how smoothly her nickname rolled of the brunette’s tongue.

More silence.

“I… should probably head inside,” Clementine said, breaking the silence.

“Oh, uh… yeah! Of course, sure. Do that,” Violet spoke, immediately mentally face palming.

_Good job, me! That was pretty well said, wasn’t it? Fucking hell._

As soon as Clementine walked off towards the dormitories, Violet started scolding herself for fucking up her words so much. If only Clementine knew what the hell she did to Violet’s ability to speak and function as a normal human being…

“So… I heard that we’re voting?”

 Violet snapped out her trance when Louis returned from the dorms with Tenn at his side.

“Yup… Let’s not make a big deal out if though. I’ll give everyone a minute to make up their minds, then we’ll raise our hands if you want her to leave. And I hope you all fucking realize that you’re sending her to her to her death if you vote for her to leave, by the way,” Violet sighed. “All raise your hand at the same time though, so the answers can’t be biased. I would just grab pieces of paper and a bowl, but I can’t be arsed.”

After having waited a few minutes and then taking a vote, they came to the conclusion that Clementine had to leave, much to Violet’s dismay. She had cursed so loudly that all the birds in the courtyard flew away and that she startled most of her friends as well. Usually this would be where Mitch would talk shit or Louis would tease her, but they knew damn well when to keep their mouths shut.

“Louis, could you join me? We have to tell them,” Violet sadly said.

“I… yes. Of course,” Louis replied with the slightest bit of hesitance.

Violet made her way to the dorms in silence, Louis following shortly after. When Violet reached the room Clem and AJ were in, she hesitated to knock for a slight second. She really didn’t want them to leave. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door, opening it and entering shortly after.

“We took the vote. You have to leave,” Violet said, as much as it hurt to do so. She wanted the brunette to stay. She wanted to get to know Clementine better, have fun with her, laugh with her and drown her in kisses.

_Wait, what? Not appropriate, Vi! Bad!_

“Don’t we get to vote? I vote that we stay,” AJ innocently asked.

“That’s not how it works,” Louis quickly talked back.

Violet could sense that Louis was still very upset with the two for doing what they did. The blonde just wished that he would be able to see the truth about the situation, rather than to be blinded by the fact that Marlon was his best friend.

“Maybe it should be,” Violet was quick to respond to him.

“You don’t have to like it,” Louis shot back at her, clearly up to argue about it.

“Good! Cause I don’t!”

“I can’t believe this! You’re all fucking crazy! After all Marlon did, this is how you react? Kicking is out, because we were caught up in his bullshit?” Clementine asked. She clearly took it on a personal level.

“I’m sorry, Clem! I really wanted you to stay, I tried everything I could, even though it was very little,” Violet murmured.

“I… wasn’t talking about you, Vi. You’re cool,” Clementine reassured her.

_Oh shit! Oh fuck! Cute girl just complemented me! Must. Function. Normally._

“Marlon dropped his weapon, and _then_ AJ killed him,” Louis argued. “How could any of us stand to be around you, after he did that? How could we trust you?”

“So fucking stupid…” Violet muttered while she crossed her arms and glared daggers at Louis.

“You agreed to having a vote to decide it fairly!”

“This entire thing is bullshit, and you’d know it if you weren’t so used to burying your head in the sand,” Violet shot back at him.

“Oh, I’m burying my head in the sand? Hate Marlon all you want, but you can’t tell me AJ isn’t dangerous, too,” Louis replied as he pointed at AJ, who just pouted in response.

_Fucking Louis, dude. He really needs to grow a fucking pair of brains. And a pair, too._

“We’ll wait for you to pack up, then Louis and I’ll escort you out past the safe zone. We’ll make sure you get to the road safely,” Violet sighed. “It’s not a lot, but at least you won’t die on the way.”

“Thanks for making sure that we—”

Clementine was interrupted by AJ, who seemingly had to let go of his anger.

“No! Don’t thank them! It-it’s their fault we gotta leave! They’re gonna get rid of us!”

“Get him under control,” Louis said, obviously quickly grasping any chance he could get to talk AJ down even further than he already had.

“AJ, breathe. And Louis,” Clementine said as she looked up at him and glared daggers, “I’m going to keep it to myself, but you know what I’m thinking right now. Actually, no. I'm not keeping it to myself. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”

Louis immediately frowned and looked at the ground, while AJ took some deep breaths.

_Good, Louis needs someone capable of putting him in place._

“Where’s Tenn? I gotta say goodbye,” AJ asked.

“He was upset about the vote and he isn’t talking to anyone. It’s best to leave him alone when he’s like this, but for the record, he wanted you to stay,” Violet answered. It hurt seeing the two people she so dearly wanted to get to know better so broken and worn out.

“Wait, does AJ still have that gun?” Louis asked out of nowhere.

“Yup, and he’s fuckin’ keeping it,” Clementine said with an angry glare. Louis put his hands up in defeat and let out a long sigh.

“Fine. Let the kid keep the murder weapon.”

From there on out it was mostly silent as the four kids made their way towards the edge of the safe zone. Violet felt super bad about everything as she heard AJ complain about all the difficulties they’d run into while they were out there. They didn’t have a car to use for shelter anymore, apparently his feet would start bleeding after walking a long period of time and obviously they wouldn’t have the company of anyone anymore. Violet felt the need to just ignore what everyone else said and just let them return to the school, but she couldn’t.

It felt so terrible to her, knowing that a friendship, or if it was up to her, something _more_ than a friendship, was lost like this. Someone they considered a friend betrayed them and the hot, new chick just gets caught up in that bullshit. Just when the blonde was about to speak up about how she’s sorry for not being able to really do anything for them, Louis started talking.

“It’s not so bad. I mean, you’ve done this before. Probably pretty good at it by now.”

Violet internally cringed harder than she ever had before. Of course, Louis would find a way to make this _even_ more awkward and shitty than it already was. He didn’t even sound guilty or remorseful, he stated in a way as if what he was saying made sense.

_Louis, just… stop talking. Please._

“You’ve lived inside walls your whole life. You have no fucking idea what it’s like out there,” Clementine retorted while looking over her shoulders to glare daggers at him. Clementine’s look scared Violet. The blonde hadn’t ever really seen anyone who could look so intimidating, but sound so calm at the same time.

“Exactly, and I’d like to keep it that way,” Louis shot back.

“LOUIS! Fuck sake! This is already fucking terrible enough and you’re just making it worse. Just shut up. For. Fucking. ONCE!” Violet snapped at him, punching him in the shoulder after. Louis looked like he was about to argue, but he kept his lips sealed. Which was probably for the best.

Violet’s heart skipped a beat, or forty, when she saw Clementine throw her a soft smile over her shoulder.

_If only this girl knew what she’s doing to me… God, I’m so fucking gay._

Violet scanned the forest surrounding them to see if she recognized the area at all. After some seconds she realized that they were exactly at the perimeter of Marlon’s safe zone. She let out a soft sigh, knowing that the next part was going to be the most difficult.

“We’re here,” she simply stated, not being able to really form any more words at that given moment.

Everyone came to a halt and turned towards the blonde.

“The road’s that way,” she said, signing towards the left with her head. She then turned towards Louis.

“Anything you want to say before we go?”

Louis threw a quick glance at Clementine and AJ and dropped his shoulders.

“I’ve said plenty.”

An unpleasant silence filled the air for a few seconds. Violet wasn’t really sure what you do at this point.

_‘Ugh, fuck. Do I say something? Do I just… turn around?’_

“Thanks for trying to keep us,” AJ said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that he was completely oblivious to. One advantage of being that young is that you don’t really sense awkward tension.

“You’re welcome. I wish you could stay,” Violet sadly sad. This was really it, then.

“Yeah, I wish we could stay too… I just wish we hadn’t fucked it up,” Clementine chimed in.

“You didn’t, Marlon did. Even dead, he’s still ruining shit,” Violet said. She processed most of her emotions by this point, and it basically all came to one thing: Fuck Marlon. Clementine wasn’t to blame for any of this, and neither was AJ. If Marlon had been honest with his friends in the first place, literally none of this would have happened. Did she blame herself? Maybe a little bit, if she’d pushed harder about the twins’ apparent death, she may have figured all of this out sooner. Hindsight’s a bitch.

“Jesus, Violet. Give him some fucking peace,” Louis said roughly. Violet ultimately decided to ignore his remark and just turned her attention to the people who she wished she’d have gotten to known better. One of which, she’d wished to have become intimate with. But none of that would happen now. This would be the last time she saw either of them.

“Just… stay safe. Both of you,” she said sorely, and then turned around and started walking away.

Why did everything have to end like this? Why does everything that looks like it’s going to be good just not last? Violet knew that she was obviously crushing hard on Clementine, but that wasn’t the only reason she was really upset about her having to leave. The brunette was obviously a very experienced survivalist and had so much experience with basically everything. She would be able to help make the school a safer place as well. But no, because most of the people at the boarding school had the emotional range of a teaspoon, they all acted out of anger and impulse and just kicked her out, rather than thinking about the long-term.

At least Aasim saw that Clementine was plenty capable and would be able to protect the school. It had been his reasoning for wanting to let both her and AJ stay. He said that he thought the school could be defended better if the two were there. Tenn just voted for them to stay because he liked them. Violet wanted them to stay because of a mixture those reasonings. Clementine reminded her of something her grandfather once told her before he passed away.

**“It is the ones that are most wounded, scarred and mysterious that one should surround themselves with, for they know what things are _really_ like.” **

Violet smiled at the thought of her grandpa. While most of phrases he formed never really made any sense, including this one, the man always loved teaching her granddaughter dumb, little lessons like this. Even though the sentence could be vague, the lesson was always clear. This wasn’t the only time Violet had encountered something that reminded her of him. His ‘dumb’ lessons somehow always managed to come in handy at sometimes.

Violet and Louis both jumped up when a gunshot rang out somewhere to their right. Violet immediately snapped her head towards the direction it came from, and her eyes widened.

_Clementine… No!_

Without any warning, she started sprinting towards where she heard the gunshot go off, which left Louis standing there alone. He yelled for the blonde to come back at first, but she ignored him, which ultimately led to him following her.

As they neared the spot where they thought they heard the gunshot came from, the sound of voices became clearer with each second.

“We’re looking for a kid, runs a community near here,” an unknown, female voice spoke.

“If I tell you where they are, will you let me go?” Clementine immediately asked in return.

Violet felt rage bubble up inside her. How fucking dared she? After everything Violet tried to do for them, how could Clementine still end up betraying her? She had thought better of the brunette. She thought she’d consider the fact that there’s people inside the walls of the school that cared for her, and it wasn’t just assholes who wanted her outside. As the duo got closer to Clementine, they saw that a woman had her pressed down onto the ground with a boot in her neck.

“We’ll consider it.”

“That’s not good enough,” Clementine said, and she spat towards the boots of a man, the same one from the station, who was holding AJ by his arm.

“You’re a fierce one, aren’t you? Fine, if you tell us where they are, we’ll let you go.”

“Welp, I guess you’re stuck with me. I value their lives over mine.”

Violet held her hand over her mouth as she had to suppress a laugh. She knew Clementine was a badass, but _this_ really was the cherry of the cake. The amber-eyed girl was pinned on the floor with a rifle aimed right at the back of her head, and she dared to play with fire like that.

_That’s so hot… Ugh! Not now, Vi. Focus._

“I wouldn’t be so ballsy if I were you, girlie,” the female said as she stomped her boot into Clementine’s neck.

“Oh yeah, for your information, I know you’re looking for Marlon. He’s as dead as my pet hamster. Hah, get it? Because my hamster is dead! God, I’m so fucking hilarious sometimes,” Clementine said as she hysterically fake-laughed.

In return, Clementine got a kick to the side of her head which made her roll onto her back. Violet winced when she heard Clem let out a small grunt of pain as the boot connected with her cheek. Violet looked at the female with the rifle surprised as she saw her pause for a second.

“…Clementine, is that you?” the woman asked.

“Lilly,” the brunette simply stated in response. The woman bowed down lightly and held her hand out for Clementine to take.

“Dude, what the fuck?” Louis whispered at Violet, but she blonde just shushed him in response. She wanted to see where this was going. She had to keep herself from letting out a soft chuckle again when Clementine refused to take her hand and stood up on her own. Petty Clementine was definitely one of the most amazing things Violet had ever witnessed.

“The hell? The fuck is this?” Abel asked. Violet was able catch his name sometime during the conversation that she’d overheard.

“Not now,” Lilly commanded. A short silence followed, in which Abel loosened the grip that he had on AJ’s arm.

“Lee isn’t with you,” Lilly stated. Clementine just crossed her arms and looked at the ground with a sad expression, an expression that Violet knew all too well. She knew what it felt like to lose loved ones. Clementine had briefly mentioned Lee during their game of War, and it was obvious that the man had meant a lot to her.

“So, he’s dead then. I’ll never remember him leaving me on the side of the road to die. Not that I can blame him, I was clearly a threat to the group after I shot that girl,” Lilly continued.

“Carley. Her name was Carley,” Clementine interrupted. Violet could tell that yet again another nerve was struck inside the brunette. It was clear to her that this Lilly was just trying to press as many sensitive buttons as she could. Lilly just shrugged.

“Lee should’ve left you behind, too. Might have lived longer if he did.”

The look on Clementine’s face that followed was heart-shattering. Violet could tell during their game that Clem somewhat blamed herself for Lee’s death, and Lilly just rubbing salt into the wound really wasn’t helping her getting over it. Violet started slowly feeling the urge to dig her thumbs into the older woman’s eye sockets.

“Same thing will happen to you, if you repeat his mistakes. That little boy there. You’ll die protecting him. You may be able to keep this up a while longer, but eventually he’ll slow you down. A walker you didn’t spot, a bullet you couldn’t dodge, a desperate cry for help that brings the herd,” Lilly said, but she made it sound like a threat.

“Perhaps, but you’ll die first,” Clementine snapped.

“Brave, but stupid. I’m surprised you made it this far. You need a better plan than just killing your enemies.”

“Because that’s totally not what you’re doing. If I recall correctly, _you’re_ the ones at war,” Clementine responded, clearly agitated by the hypocrisy of the situation.

“Fuck, we don’t have time for all of this,” Abel added to the conversation.

“We’ve got history.”

“Great, you know her, I know her. Point is, we got a job to do,” he answered. Lilly paused for a second and returned her attention to Clementine.

“We could help you raise that boy, Clementine. But we need you to do something for us.”

“Like what? Help you kidnap a couple more kids?”

“We don’t need a couple. We need all of you,” Abel said.

“We’ll take you back to the Delta to join our people. We have walls. We have working solar panels, and we grow our own food. All we need from you is to go back to your friends and convince them to come peacefully. No one will be harmed,” Lilly added.

Violet’s heart was beating in her throat at this point. By now it was obvious that Clementine clearly knew this woman from somewhere but hadn’t been with her for a long time, but that didn’t mean that she’d favor the kids who just kicked her out of their home over her. It all came down to this. Violet could see Louis tensing up as well.

“I’m not Marlon,” Clementine simply stated.

That was enough to convince Violet. She couldn’t sit here and watch. She had to do something. She heard Abel threaten Clementine some more, but she didn’t care right now. She snuck out of the bushes and started to silently walk towards where the little standoff was taking place and she drew her bow.

“RUN!” Clementine called out, catching Violet by surprise. She hadn’t even realized that the brunette had spotted her. Before she even thought by herself, she just complied to what Clementine said and started running as fast as she could, away from Clementine, away from everything. She just needed to get back to the school. More gunshots rang out as she traversed through the dense parts of the forests.

_FUCK!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You don't have to do anything. I'll prove it to them."
> 
> "I hope you can. I really want you to stay," Violet thinks out loud. Clementine raises an eyebrow.
> 
> "Oh, is that right?" Clementine says with a playful grin as she crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at the blonde.
> 
> Ah shit, here we go again.
> 
> "I-uh... yeah. You're pretty. Uh... pretty nice, I mean. Yeah. Yup,that's definitely what I meant."

"They're fucking dead, Louis!" Violet angrily yells as soon as they make their way back onto the school's courtyard. She couldn't believe. She didn't _want_ to believe it. This is all their fault. If they hadn't sent them out there, none of this bullshit would've happened.

"Well, it's not like it affects us. Whether they're dead or not out there, we wouldn't have ever seen them again anyway," Louis replies as he shrugs.

"Are you for real right now, Louis? For God's sake, you can be such an IGNORANT SHITHEAD!" Violet screams in frustration.

"Sug, keep it down. We don't need y'all attractin' walkers back to the school," Ruby says as she comes walking towards them.

"Ruby, I know you're going to ask questions, so I'm going to answer all of them right now. Yes, we sent them out there, and now they're fucking dead. They ran into those creeps, one of which she knows, I think, that Marlon traded the twins to. She told us to run when we got near them, and now they got fucking shot," says Violet as tears start forming in her eyes. She couldn't believe she was actually _crying_ over people they'd only met a few days ago. Violet _never_ cried. She storms towards the dorm entrance and leans against one of the pillars, facing away from everyone.

Of course, Violet warmed up to Clementine faster than she ever had to anyone, and her raging lesbian feelings towards her didn't make this easier on her. She just wished that she'd pushed more. She promised Clementine that she'd try to do something so she could stay, but she barely did shit. She wishes she'd argued more. She wishes she'd hugged Clementine while she still could. She wishes she'd _kissed_ Clementine while she still could. But that's all over now. They're gone.

Louis notices Violet's distress and couldn't help but to start feeling a bit guilty himself. Did Clementine and AJ really deserve this? Probably not. But then, did anyone deserve something like that? No, not at all. But this still felt different to him. The more Louis thinks about it, the more he starts realizing how hard he fucked up. Especially with that last remark of his.

Violet hears someone walking up behind her and feels a hand on her shoulder. She turns around, and when she sees who it is, she immediately pushes him away and goes towards her room. She just can't face Louis right now. Not after he was one of the people that voted for Clementine and AJ to leave. If he had just thought it through rather than acting out of anger, Clementine would be happily eating lunch with them. Well, maybe not _happily_ , given the circumstances, but at least she'd be here.

Violet doesn't feel like doing anything anymore today. And tomorrow. Maybe the entire week. She just wants to stay in bed and cry. This one chance she had at having a new best friend was taken away from her, just like everything else that she ever had. She could tell that her and Clementine would've gotten along. _Something_ just clicked. But, it's all too late now.

This would haunt her forever.

Starting now.

Violet starts slowly falling into a slumber.

_"I'll try everything I can so you can stay," Clementine mocks, imitating the voice of Violet, who was sitting on a bench with her face dug deep into her own knees._

_"I don't blame you for Marlon and Brody's death, but I still sent you towards yours," Clementine continues after she notices Violet's silence._

_And Violet remains silent._

_"You know, Violet. Me and AJ could have been alive. And guess what? Not just alive, but happy, too. One thing's for sure thought. There's no way we'd stay at that absolutely shithole you call a school."_

_"Please, just leave me alone," Violet cries quietly._

_"What's that? Are you fucking **crying**_? _After everything you've done to me, **you're** crying? I should be the one fucking crying, Violet. But guess what? I'm not, because I can actually control my emotions."_

_"Just… go away."_

_"Where would I go?"_

_"Away."_

_"But you need to be taught a lesson."_

_"JUST GO THE FUCK AWAY!" Violet screams._

_"_ _Nope. You have to realize that you're just a strain on everyone else. Louis told me, you know. How he'd come to help you during those restless nights, but you'd just push him away like the ungrateful bitch that you are. All those times that you needed people, they were there for you, but you never cared. And now, this one time someone needs you, you get them killed. It's impressive, being **that** worthless, you know?"_

_"Stop. You're lying."_

_"Nuh uh, am not."_

_"Clementine wouldn't say stuff like this."_

_"Guess who you're talking to? Last time I checked, my name was Clementine. And it's not like you know me. You've known me for a few days. Maybe I just faked everything. Maybe I faked being your friend. Maybe I tried grabbing your hand that one time just to lead you on, to see how desperate you were and how stressed you'd become. It's fun, you know? Playing with weak people's emotions."_

_"You know what's funny? She's right."_

_Violet's head immediately shoot up when she hears the familiar voice._

_"What? Minnie, no. You don't mean that."_

_"Sorry, but I do. You ever really think I loved you? The only reason I wanted to be your girlfriend was because I thought you were hot and wanted to fuck you. But guess what? We never did, because 'it's to early' and 'you're not ready.' You're a fucking disaster. But you never thought those things when you were fantasizing about Clementine, did you? You'd let her fuck you whenever she wants."_

_"That's not true!"_

_"It is. You even think about her when touching yourself, don_ _’_ _t you?"_

_Violet stays silent and stares at her feet._

_"Really, Violet? You think of me when doing that shit? God, that's fucking disgusting. You're pathetic, you know that? If you ever thought I'd do that kind of shit with you, you're fucking delusional. I wouldn't touch you in a million years, especially when I have Minerva."_

_Clementine and Minnie start making out. Pieces of garment are being removed. Violet starts feeling lightheaded. Clementine starts fading. Minnie starts fading. The air around Violet starts feeling lighter._

_She feels freer. Like a bird._

 

"Jesus fucking cockwomble!" Violet exclaims as she shoots up in bed, almost hitting her head on the bunk above her.

Before she could even start processing what she just dreamed about, she already bursts out in tears. It's just too much. All of it.

She wishes she could just be as free as she felt at the end of that dream. Free of worry. Free of stress. Free of her undeniable romantic feelings for Clementine, who was now dead. What's the point of having these feelings if she's dead, anyway?

They'd just slow her down. Maybe even slow her down to the point where she'd die because of it. But what if that's what she wanted? If all that happens to her is lose things that she loves, likes or adores, what's the point in living?

Violet starts doing the breathing exercises she always told Brody to do if she ever got one of her panic attacks. While Violet didn't necessarily like her, she was always there to help her through those attacks.

After a few minutes, she could feel herself calming down. Her feelings of distress, hatred and confusion were replaced by other ones. Lust. Arousal. Her body feels a desire of endorphins. Before she realizes it herself, she's already tugging at her belt. She feels throbbing inside her core. There's no going back now.

Her hands slip into her underwear and she starts rubbing circles. A soft moan escapes her lips. She thinks about Clementine and how soft her lips would feel against her own. She thinks of Clementine and pretends that her fingers are those of the brunette. The thinks about how Clementine would taste.

"Cle—, Clem," escapes Violet lips. She feels herself reaching her high. Any second now.

"CleMEntine," Violet moans, practically dragging her orgasm out of herself. She loves how Clementine's name sounds when it escapes her lips. But soon after reaching her climax, the feelings of bliss were gone. She starts crying. Crying because of everything. She feels guilty because Minnie was still out there somewhere. Crying because of how disrespectful it was of her to get off to someone who's dead.

She lets out a few shaky breaths and starts cleaning herself up. After having disposed off all the evidence, she decides to go outside. She needs to go on a walk to clear her mind. Maybe go up to the bell tower for a bit. When she gets outside, she sees that Willy is on lookout and Omar was preparing breakfast.

Meanwhile, Violet just feels like shit. That nightmare really kicked her ass.

She sees Louis walking out of the admin building, presumably returning from piano duty. She immediately feels guilty. She feels sorry for the things that she said. She feels sorry for how she acted. But it will take a while for her to get over this. Until then, she couldn't apologize. She just couldn’t.

"WALKER!" Willy exclaims from on top of the watch tower. Violet didn't fucking care at this point. She just continued walking towards Omar, having decided that she wanted to talk to him to get her mind off things. She watches Louis as he slowly strolls towards the gates to help Willy. Willy turns around.

"Violet, Louis! They came back!" he yells.

They? Who are 'they'? Sophie and Minnie? They are the only ones that they know that are outside these walls. But that wouldn't make sense. Suddenly, Violet sees Louis running outside the gates. The blonde feels her body go completely numb as he comes running back inside, carrying AJ in his arms.

_…AJ? Does that mean that Clementine is...?_

A familiar brunette walks through the gates and onto the courtyard. She looks beaten-up, tired, and like she could use a hug.

_Should I hug her?_

Violet's jaw completely drops to the floor after her brain processed that it was _actually_ Clementine.

_Is this for real? What the actual fuck?_

"Hi there," says Clementine with a small smirk. "Missed ya."

_She's alive? But how? We heard the gunshots after we left. It makes no sense that she's alive. No human alive could dodge that many bullets. Not the ones shot by people that are so well-trained like those raiders._

"Violet?"

_Does that mean that I did enough by distracting them for a few seconds? Did it give them time to run? Or did they snatch the weapons and shot the raiders, and were we just too dumb to realize that they were in fact the ones shooting those bullets?_

"Vi?"

"Oh, yeah. Uh, hi."

Violet immediately hates herself again for instantly making this awkward again. Imagine being an angsty, hormonal lesbian that actually knows how to form decent phrases when talking to a cute girl.

"You good?" Clementine asks with a puzzled look.

_Of course, she'd ask. She's almost gets shot and killed, and she asks_ me _if I'm fine. She's just so caring_ _…_ _and beautiful._

"I should be asking you that…"

"I mean, I guess. But you looked pretty out of it."

"Jesus, Clem. I thought you were dead…" Violet silently admits as she starts shaking a little bit. She couldn't hold back tears the tears forming in her eyes and longer. Her emotions are just a damn mess right now. Without any hesitation, Clementine pulled Violet in for a tight hug and let the girl cry on her shoulder.

"I'm fine. Just let it all out, okay? It's okay to cry, don't worry," says Clementine in a soothing voice that sends shivers down Violet's spine. Clementine rubs circles on Violet's back while she's letting it all out. After a few minutes, the blonde's tears finally dried and she lifts up her face from Clem's shoulder.

"I'm sorry for snotting all over you… I guess I'll be here too if you ever need a shoulder to cry on," Violet nervously chuckles.

"Don't worry about it. And thanks," the shorter girl says with a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"Anyway, how's AJ?"

Clementine's face immediately drops.

"He's been shot, if you're willing to share medicine he should be just fine," Clementine sighs.

"Why is that even a question? Of course, we're sharing our fucking medicine. Let's hurry inside, now," Violet responds, and without thinking she takes Clementine's hand and leads her towards the admin building.

While they are walking towards the couch that Ruby always treats her patients on, Violet realizes that the return of the girl that most kids hold a grudge against was something that would need a lot of explaining. She knew for sure that Mitch was going to throw a tantrum as soon as he found out that the two were back. And seeing as he's got the same emotional range as a teaspoon, it'd be difficult to convince him to just shut the fuck up for once. Violet knew one thing for sure though; she wasn't letting Clementine go, not again. Not after it almost got her killed.

When they reached the couch, Violet realizes that Clementine intertwined their fingers together. She immediately feels heat rising to her cheeks and slowly retracts her hand, receiving a small smile from Clem in the process.

_Holy shit. That did NOT just happen. I think I'm in love._

Violet snaps out of her daze and focuses on the people surrounding the couch AJ was lying on. Ruby was treating the boy while Louis was watching her. He looks like he wants to help, but Ruby seems to be doing just fine treating him on her own.

_Maybe seeing that his actions have consequences will actually teach Louis a god damn lesson for once._

"He's running a fever. His body is trying to fight the infection, poor little guy," says Ruby as she removes her hand from AJ's forehead. By the looks of things, AJ was going to be just fine, so it was time for her to talk business.

"Clem? Ruby and Louis will take care of him. We need to talk. Can you come with me to the office?" Violet asks with a stern, but gentle voice.

Clementine throws Violet a quick nod before turning to AJ to reassure him of the situation, and when she is done doing so, she turns to Violet and follows her into the office. Violet closes the door behind them and lets out a deep sigh.

"About what happened in the woods... I saw they had you pinned, and I... shit, I just got so crazy. I wanted to do something, but when you told us to run, I had to trust you. Thanks for that, for protecting us, it was super brave. Also, the way you talked to that woman was... uh... pretty bad ass, if I do say so myself," says Violet, chuckling as she adds the last part.

_Come on, Vi! Talk business now, flirt later._

"It's just that... I really thought you were dead. I was already mourning you and... fuck. Everything's just so fucked right now, you know?" she adds.

"I know, but it's really good to see you again. I'm glad yesterday wasn't the last time," Clementine speaks as she smiles brightly at the green-eyed girl in front of her.

"It's good to see you too... I'm happy you're here. It's just that some others won't really feel the same way about that. Most people just hold a grudge against you, but Mitch absolutely hates your guts. I told Ruby about what happened in the woods, and I wouldn't be surprised if she already told everyone else. About that woman, you know?"

"Lilly," Clementine growls.

"So, you do know her? We weren't sure. I mean, we were, but who is she? What... the fuck, you know?"

Violet turns around and walks towards the balcony and takes a deep breath of fresh air to clear her mind. Everything is just overwhelming her right now. She takes a few more deep breaths before turning her attention back to Clementine.

"I mean, I know you're not _with_ her, but knowing Mitch, he won't like the coincidence. Her showing up right after you?" the blonde says.

"Well, Lilly and I were friends when all of this shit started. But that was so long ago. I'm surprised we even recognized each other. I mean, I actually thing she recognized the hat, not me," Clementine jokes while tipping said hat, which leads to the both of them letting out airy laughs. "But when I last saw her, I think was eight years old? It's been a while. She used to be a decent person. She just had this bat-shit crazy dad who made _her_ look a lot worse than she really was."

"Sounds like she's changed," Violet sighs as she sits down behind Marlon's old desk.

"Yeah... seems that way. I'm just glad her shitty behavior didn't rub off on me back then. I wouldn't ever want to be like her," Clementine responds.

"Heh, I know someone who'd like to rub off on you. He's got dreads and plays piano," Violet chuckles without thinking.

"Dude, gross!" Clementine laughs.

The heavy tension that lingered in the air was growing lighter the more the two joked. The both of them really needed some of those light-hearted jokes, they both already felt a lot better than two minutes ago.

"Anyway, enough about Louis' teenage activities. What does she do? What's she good at? Should we be worried?" says Violet after the laughter had quieted down.

"Well, all I really remember is that she gave me hair ties whenever I needed them and that she murdered a girl in our group. Her name was Carley. They were having an argument, but rather than talking it out she just shot her. We left her on the side of the road after that. Lilly, I mean. But I'm sure she's not _entirely_ sane."

"Damn... that's crazy. I believe you, though."

A short silence follows, in which Clementine walks up to the desk that Violet is sitting at.

"But?" the brunette asks.

"There's something else. Willy said someone was with you at the gates? He was like, wearing animal skin, or something?"

"That'll be James. He helped me and AJ after AJ got shot. He's a sweet guy. I wouldn't have led him here if he was a threat. You'll most likely never see him again."

"Okay... that's good, I guess," Violet ponders out loud. "But what's with the animal skin?"

"Uh... not animal skin. Walker skin. He wears it to blend into herds. He can guide them, too."

"Oh, yikes," Violet grimaces as she scratches the back of her neck. "Whatever floats his boat, I guess."

"Vi, you have to trust me. I wouldn't have brought him here if I thought he'd be any sort of danger towards any of us. I mean, any if you. I'm not quite sure if I'm a part of this group."

"You are, don't worry. We'll convince the others. Anyway, it's not that I don't trust you. I'm just worried about what the others might think. Most of them will understand, but Mitch is basically a fucking brick."

"A brick?" Clementine asks with a small laugh.

"Doesn't budge a single fucking inch unless you hit him with brute force," Violet explains, causing Clementine to fall into a fit of giggles. Violet feels her heart warm up at the sound of Clementine's laughter, and how her eyes light up whenever all worry was gone for a few seconds.

"He does come off that way, yeah," the brunette chuckles after composing herself.

"But I guess his behavior is understandable in _some_ weird way. They didn't even get the chance to mourn Marlon and Brody before those thundercunts showed up. And then you two coming after after we all thought you were dead? Everyone's just fucking confused and scared and they're looking for someone to blame. Oh yeah, and nobody knows how to feel about AJ," Violet briefly explains. In reality, these are only a small part of the problems that the school would be facing.

Violet was super glad she was actually able to form sentences this time around. When it was just the two of them before, she'd be lucky to put two words after one another that made sense. But then again, this is a serious matter while the others were all attempts at making small talk, all of which failed miserably. Clementine didn't seem to mind that though; Violet was pretty confident that the brunette enjoyed spending time with her.

"Violet, AJ is the least of their worries right now," says Clementine as she brings her hands down on the desk forcefully.

"I know, Clementine. But the others don't, and _that's_ the problem. How am I supposed to make them change their minds about you? I mean, we voted fairly and they kicked you out."

"You don't have to do anything. I'll prove it to them."

"I hope you can. I really want you to stay," Violet thinks out loud. Clementine raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, is that right?" Clementine says with a playful grin as she crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at the blonde.

_Ah shit, here we go again._

"I-uh... yeah. You're pretty. Uh... pretty nice, I mean. Yeah. Yup, that's definitely what I meant," Violet struggles to say as she's slowly starting to turn beet-nick red. Clementine bursts out laughing.

"I'm just teasing. And besides, you're their leader now. They have to listen to you."

"Except they don't... They only listen when they want to," Violet sighs.

"Well, they'll have to start if they want to survive what's coming."

"What do you mean, survive what's coming?" Violet immediately asks, noticing that her breathing is starting to hitch.

"Oh, right. Pretty important detail I forgot to tell you. James said that Lilly and her raiders are going to come attack the school with more guns and people to kidnap all of us. I already know what you're thinking. 'How does he know?' He's watched them for a while. They do this to more communities."

"And... what would they use us for?"

"To fight in their wars. It's fucked up, but yeah."

"So that's what happened to Sophie and Minnie? God, that's super fucked up. Minnie didn't even like killing walkers. We should really defend the school then. You don't happen to know how, do you?"

"I do. I was part of a siege once in Richmond."

"Of course, you were," Violet says as she playfully rolls her eyes.

Clementine proceeds to explain to Violet how they could best defend the school. They plan to get barbed wire from the old greenhouse, to scatter traps around the admin building and to divide the courtyard into different sections so they would know what way the raiders would be coming from. Clementine also suggested making arrows with walker teeth so the people who got hit by them would get infected, but Violet didn't want to risk anything accidentally scratching themselves while making the arrows.

"Okay, what the fuck is going on?" Mitch yells as he aggressively throws open the door, startling to the two girls inside. "Willy told me she was back, but I was like, no way, Violet wouldn't just go against what we _all_ decided."

"Shh! Keep it down, would ya? The little boy is sleepin'!" Ruby hisses as she walks in the room after Mitch, gently closing the door behind her. She turns to Clementine and gives her a warm smile. "His fever is already going down. He'll be fine."

"Oh, that's just great. We're giving them our damn medicine, too?" Mitch scoffs. Violet steps in front of Clementine protectively.

"Mitch, those raiders are getting ready to attack the school. We _need_ Clem's help to fight them off."

"Jesus Christ, Violet's already found herself a new girlfriend. Of course, you'd defend the new, attractive cute girl. But guess what? I see her for what she really is. She's a fucking piece of shit that brings death anywhere she goes. She shows up, and what happens? Marlon and Brody die. For all we know, she's with those assholes."

"If you'd have seen their leader's boot on her neck, you'd say otherwise," Violet immediately retorts. "Why else would they do that?"

"Besides, they wouldn't have shot AJ if I was with them" Clementine adds.

"Maybe they would have. What if he pissed them off?"

"Jesus, you really are a fucking brick," Clementine mutters, to which Violet couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Fucking really, Vi? I'm done with this shit," Mitch angrily says before barging out of the room, loudly slamming the door shut behind him. A short silence followed in which everyone just looks at each other awkwardly.

"Well... that went about as well as could be expected from Mitch," Violet sighs as she walks back towards the desk and sits down. "Anyway, we need to divide the tasks. Ruby, I want you and Mitch to check out the greenhouse to get barbed wire and anything else that might be useful. Could you go do that now?"

"On it," Ruby confirms, just before walking outside the room, leaving Clementine and Violet alone.

"Thanks for backing me up. Again," Clementine nervously chuckles while scratching her neck. "I owe you big time."

"You don't owe me anything, I just try to do what's right. Don't worry about it," Violet says as casually as she could muster while she felt heat rising to her cheeks. She returns her attention back to the map where her and Clementine  had drawn out their plan. "Anyway, I'll have Aasim and Willy design one or more traps for the admin building. Then Louis... I guess I'll have him set up a shooting range so we can practice with a bow? AJ will obviously want to help, too... I'll have him and Tenn divide the courtyard. They should do good on that given their creativity with the drawings and stuff. Then, Omar will have lookout duty and Omar will obviously also cook the food. That leaves... just us," Violet said nervously, not having done that on purpose at all. "There aren't really any tasks left, so I guess we'll just walk around and lead people and help whenever necessary."

"And... you needed my help defending the school, why?" Clementine laughs while Violet just nervously smiles.

"I wouldn't have come up with these ideas... Dividing roles is easy enough."

"Give yourself some credit, Vi," says Clementine as she puts her hand on the blonde's shoulder. Violet immediately tenses up at the touch and feels her face heat up. Clementine is so close to her. Violet licks her lips while looking at Clementine's. She wants to kiss the girl in front of her so badly, but Clementine retracts her hand and walks towards the balcony.

"We should start preparing today. We should waste as little time as possible."

_Holy shit... she's so goddamn gorgeous. And those eyes... I could look at those for fucking hours and not get bored. And she's so strong and passionate..._

"Vi?"

"Huh, what?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Never mind. I was saying we should start today, at least by telling everyone what they should start doing tomorrow."

"I agree. Let's head outside."

All of the kids are in the courtyard, sitting at the picnic tables as Mitch was yelling a bunch of inaudible stuff at them. As soon as Violet and Clementine walk out of the admin building, all eyes dart towards them and everyone looks at them with mixed expressions. Mitch is furious, whereas Louis looks guilty. Ruby simply has an empathetic look on her face. The rest wasn't really paying the girls any mind. Aasim had thrown Clementine a nod, but left it at that. He was now focusing on his 'history book' again. None of the kids took their attention off their drawings. Just when Mitch was about to say something, Ruby interrupts him.

"Mitch, I think we should go to the greenhouse. While you may not like her, you can't deny she's right. We gotta do somethin' here," she says as she grabs Mitch's shirt and practically drags him towards the area where the greenhouse is. Mitch's gaze never leaves Clementine thought; he kept staring daggers at her the entire time until he was out of sight. Violet clears her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Well... as most of you have _probably_ noticed, Clem is back. So, yeah. That. While we could kick her out again, I personally say we should let her stay. Any objections?" Violet asks as she scans all of the kids, waiting for some sort of reply, but none came. "Okay, good. While we were out there, we, well actually, _Clem_ , ran into those fuckheads that Marlon traded the twins to. They're planning to attack the school to take all of us as well."

Panic immediately ensues. Omar quietly swears under his breath while Louis and Aasim just blankly stare at their two leaders, before they both start muttering a bunch of things under her breath as well. The kids look most panicky of all, seeing as they couldn't really grasp what that really meant. Not understanding something can be the scariest thing.

"What? Why? And how?" Louis asks after clearing his throat. His voice was very shaky, but whether it was because he's scared or because he feels guilty for facing Clementine again after kicking her out, nobody could tell. Now Clementine spoke up.

"Because they're at war. They take people to fight for them. It's what happened to Minerva and Sophie. They turned them into soldiers. And the same thing will happen to us if we don't do something about it. And you asked, how? With their ridiculous amounts of weaponry. I wouldn't be surprised if their armory is the size of our entire admin building. This means we can't beat them with force, so we'll have to outsmart them. That's why Violet and me created a plan to fortify the school. We have already divided the tasks and we'll start tomorrow."

"I know she's saying we did it, but it's all her. All I did was nod at whatever she said," Violet says with a smirk. Clementine blushes lightly and hides her face behind her hands. "Anyway, I'm going to get the chalkboard that we should still have in the greenhouse after Mitch and Ruby clear it out. I'll write down the duty list on it so you all know what to do when you wake up tomorrow."

Everyone silently nods and goes back to what they were doing before. Willy, Tenn and AJ continue drawing, while Louis, Aasim and Omar go back to talking about whatever they were talking about before. The two leaders walk back towards the admin building and Violet crashes down onto a bean bag in the music room.

"I'm honestly surprised they listened to a single word I said... Usually they just ignore me. They think because I've known them for so long they can just do that, or something," Violet sighs as Clementine sits down on the piano stool.

"You're their leader now, and so far you're doing a damn fine job. They'll _have_ to listen if they want to stand a chance against those raiders, and I think they realize that."

"I just hope that your efforts will be enough to defeat those shitheads..."

"They will be. Don't worry about it, Vi. We'll figure it out."

"Thanks, Clem. Really, I appreciate it."

And with that, the girls walk back towards their office to continue planning everything out in more detail.

It was going to be a rough few days.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe she'll find out if Clementine's into girls. Maybe she'll get dared to give Violet a lap-dance. 
> 
> Prooobably not, though… Sad life.

Two weeks have passed since the school started preparing for the inevitable raider attack. Due to the immense amount of work Violet and Clementine had done together, they had grown to be very close during the past two weeks. Obviously, by spending so much time together, this only led to Violet's crush growing even bigger than it had already been. She savored every moment that the brunette laughed at one of her sarcastic remarks, or when their hands brushed together while they worked. Creepy? Maybe. Worth it? Definitely.

Violet truly is a lesbian disaster.

But her growing closer to Clementine wasn't the only thing that happened during these two weeks. Violet started thinking about Minerva a lot. It has been a year since she last saw her, and she also realized that there is are no romantic feelings towards Minnie anymore. How does she know? Whenever she thinks of Minerva, the only thing that comes to mind is 'Yup, Minerva exists.'

Violet feels ready to move on from her. Had she not met Clementine, she would probably still be stuck in her endless loop of self-pity and pushing other people away. The rest of the group was very thankful that Violet was getting some more of her older traits back. While some of the kids, mainly Louis, realize that Violet has the hots for Clementine, they all kept their mouths shut about it.

"Okay, Lou. We should go board up the back hallway now. Then we'll be done for today," Violet says as she wipes some sweat off her forehead. She'd worked her ass off today, cutting logs and sawing wood to form planks to get the job done.

"I… have something else I need to do," Louis says while he starts walking towards the exit of the admin building.

"Excuse me? Let me guess, it's your damn piano. We've got no time for that shit, Louis. Quit fucking around!"

"Is my piano outside? I don't think it is," Louis snaps as he pushes the door open. "I'll talk to you later."

"Just fucking help me!" Violet calls out as she runs after him.

"I have other stuff I need to do!"

"What 'other' stuff?" Violet pries.

"Nothing… it's just… it's important."

"Louis, for fuck's sake, take something seriously for once in your life!"

"I've been taking this shit seriously for days! Almost two weeks!"

"Just like everyone else. Get over yourself," Violet coldly retorts, to which Louis just turns around and walks away.

Violet thought it was unbelievable how fucking stubborn Louis could be sometimes. While she was busy cutting wood and getting all the planks ready today, he just kind of hung out around the courtyard, chatting with everyone. And the one moment that Violet needs him to be productive, he has something 'important' to do.

_Classic Louis._

After Violet escapes her thoughts, she realizes that Clementine had been eavesdropping the conversation she had with Louis just now and was making her way towards her. Violet just hopes that Clementine wasn't going to tell her off about how she acted towards Louis; it was the last thing she needed right now.

"Hey," Violet says with a weak smile as she sits down on the staircase leading towards the admin building, the same spot Clementine had sat on after their latest funeral.

"Hey, Blondie," Clementine says with a tiny smirk.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" Violet groans with a fake pout.

Clementine gives her puppy eyes.

"Okay, fine! You can call me that. But only _sometimes_."

"Yay!" Clementine cheers while fist bumping the air. She awkwardly cleared her throat afterwards. "Uh… anyway. I thought those assholes would show up days ago. I wonder what the hell they're waiting for."

"Yeah, me too. At first, I wanted more time to prepare but now this waiting fucking sucks and everyone's on edge," Violet sighs.

"Do you need help with anything?" Clementine gently asks, using her hands to gesture across the courtyard.

"Yeah, actually. Could you check on everyone and make sure they're doing their shit correctly? I mean, they should all be finished by now but it's better to make sure."

"I'm on it."

"Thanks, Clem. I'm just going to board up the back hallway, since Louis isn't going to help me with it."

"Okay. Talk later?"

"You bet."

After securing the back hallway and being extremely frustrated that there were no punk or rock records to listen to while doing the heavy labor, Violet goes back outside and sits down on the stairs that her and Clementine had talked on earlier that day. When this school was still functioning, she always dreaded the stairs that were now well-worn and disgusting. Every time she'd have to use them, it was because she had to see Mr. Ericson in his office after she'd gotten in trouble again. Or even worse, when Louis forced her to listen to his playing on the piano. But right now, she sees the stairs as an opportunity for peace and quiet. To just sit for a second and rest.

She sees Clementine talking with Louis and feels a slight twinge of jealousy when the two of them share laugh and hug after. She pushes those thoughts away and focuses on what's important.

After Clem talked for a few more minutes with Louis, Violet sees her turning around and walking towards the admin building. She gives Violet a warm smile and sits down next to her on the steps.

"So, how is everyone doing? Have they done an okay job, or was this entire thing fucking pointless?" Violet asks, even though she knows the answer deep down. There was no way in hell that a school of kids who've all never even been outside their walls would have a decent job defending this place and have done their tasks correctly. They simply didn't have the experience.

"They're all doing amazing. They're ready for this," says Clementine with a voice that sounds like she was still trying to convince herself as well. Maybe even more than she was trying to convince Violet.

"Really?" Violet asks with a small snort.

"Uh… no," Clementine laughs.

"Well, at least you're being honest."

"Yeah, I guess. But honestly isn't going to win us this fight. Mitch is still trying to figure out his bomb and Louis hasn't hit a single target with that bow once, y'know? But the best we can do is stay positive."

"You're right…"

Suddenly, the door of the admin building flies open behind the two leaders, startling the both of them. Aasim and Willy come walking out as they were bickering about something.

"Because you're boring and your idea is stupid!" Willy complains as he tries to catch up to Aasim, who was still angrily stomping away.

"Oh, I'm stupid? You're the one who can't think straight! If you could hear—"

"GUYS! What the fuck?" Violet interrupts, alerting everyone on the courtyard about the small quarrel going on. Willy turns towards Louis who was walking over to see what the problem is.

"Violet told us to work on those traps together, but Aasim won't listen to a single thing I say!" Willy cries out.

"Does that mean you have to scream at each other?" Louis asks calmly, trying to lighten the mood at least a _little_ bit.

"Well, yeah," Willy answers, as if it's the most logical thing on earth.

"Willy, it was rhetorical."

"Whatever."

Aasim interrupts Willy and Louis and starts actually explaining what the argument is about, so everyone could understand what is going on. Aasim has a plan for duffel bags filled with bricks, which he would drop on the raiders if they got to the admin building. Willy wants to use a swinging log. In the end, Clementine ultimately decided that the duffel bag trap was most practical for them to use. It was both easier to make and you wouldn't need a giant-ass log.

Violet was really happy that she had Clementine as her second-in-command; she wouldn't want anyone else by her side through this. If anything, Clementine probably made more important decisions than she did herself, but Clementine insisted on not being the leader, because, 'I've only been in this community for a few weeks, it's not right.' While Violet understood her reasoning, she wished it was different. If Clementine took on full responsibility for this place rather than half, they could get so much more shit done. Right now, she just pitched all of her ideas to Violet, who just ended up accepting most of them anyway. And she helped keep the other kids in check, because Violet was sometimes unable too. For some reason, some of the others had the idea that simply because they've known Vi for almost their entire lives, that that is a reason to just not listen to her and only listen when they want to.

Let's just say that Clementine managed to change their minds on that. One time during dinner, she'd given them a stern lecture on why they should get their shit together. It was quiet the rest of the evening after that. Ever since that night, people like Willy, Louis, and even Mitch started taking Violet's commands a lot more seriously, which led to them getting a lot more work done than they would have otherwise. Louis just kind of slipped on the last day, but that was probably the stress of the entire situation getting to him. Putting a jokester like him in the shoes of a warrior must not have been easy for him. While Violet wanted to tell him how proud she was of him for actually taking everything serious for the most part, she wouldn't do so until it was all over. If she'd tell him now, he'd start taking shit less seriously again, and that was the last thing they needed.

But even with Violet now being more respected as leader, there was still the occasional clashes in the group. After Clementine had agreed to use Aasim's trap, Willy got super-pissed and hit the boy in the dick.

"Ouch, right in the babymaker!" Louis laughs while Willy runs off. Aasim grabs onto his nutsack and just grumbles a bunch of swears under his breath while walking towards the couches. It's where the kids usually chilled at the end of a long day around a campfire to clear their minds for a bit.

Relaxing. It is something that the kids had not had a lot of time for these days. With all the preparations and being under Clementine and Violet's command, everyone always found themselves busy with something.

"We should go to poor Aasim over there and cheer him up a bit, don't you think?" Louis proposes as he looks at the grumpy guy sitting on his own.

"How would you do that? He's super pissed off and you're basically a sphere," Violet speaks.

"A sphere?" Louis asks curiously.

"Yup. No matter what way I look at you, you're still fucking annoying."

Louis pretends to be hurt by placing his hand over his chest, where is heart is, but Violet just shrugs at him.

"You definitely wound me sometimes, Vi."

"Not my fault that your IQ is roughly around room temperature."

"Hey!"

Clementine just giggles at the bickering of the two friends as they make their way over to Aasim. When they reach him, Violet ends the conversation by calling him as useless as a screen door on a submarine, and she sits down on one of the couches. Louis cheerfully walks up to Aasim and throws his arm around Aasim's shoulder.

"I shall maketh thee joyous again!" Louis dramatically exclaims as he sits down on the boy's right.

"Really? Shakespearean?"

"Hell yeah, dude! I thought you'd be all into that, seeing as that book of yours is basically your girlfr—, oh excuse me, _boy_ friend. Anyway, we need to do something that will help turn that frown upside down. And I have the perfect plan for that!"

Violet immediately lets out a long groan while Clementine watches her do so with an amused expression. The blonde knows that Louis is planning on playing one of his stupid games, which she usually hates, but now that Clementine was with them, she didn't mind them all that much. She sees them as opportunities to get to know her better. Maybe she'll find out if Clementine's into girls. Maybe she'll get dared to give Violet a lap-dance.

_Prooobably not, though… Sad life._

All these fantasies enter the blonde's head, and she finds herself distracted from whatever was going on around her. She imagines how Clementine's touch would feel on her stomach, and how soft and amazing her lips would feel when pressed against her own. She starts mentally undressing Clementine and the result was… breathtaking, to say the least.

"Vi? You're drooling. Are you okay?" Louis asks.

"W-Wha? Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay, good. As I was saying, we're playing truth or dare to lighten the mood a little bit."

"Truth or dare has cards?" Violet asks while eyeing the stack of cards Louis was holding.

"Yup, this version does! Highest gets to ask or dare, lowest has to fulfill their wishes. Let us begin!"

Louis lets the stack go around the circle of kids. The people participating in game are Louis, Violet, Clementine, AJ, Tenn and Aasim. AJ probably had no idea what this game was all about, but Violet's pretty confident that he'd pick it up along the way; it's not that complicated. Violet looks at her card and grins when she sees that she has an ace of spades. The rest of the people in the circle turn over their cards, and the lowest one is in Clementine's hands.

"Oh goodie, I wonder where this is going," Louis says with a small smirk.

"Dude, shut the fuck up," Violet instantly retorts. It's obvious that Louis also has a crush on Clementine too, and the brunette was as oblivious to it just as much as she was oblivious to Violet's crush. "Truth. Uh, let's see… Fuck-marry-kill. Louis, Ruby and… Gabe, that boy you told me about that one time."

"There's a Gabe in Clem's life?" Louis asks with a small frown. Clementine lightly shrugs.

"I guess there was. I never _really_ had a thing for him, but it was obvious that he had a big crush on me. I actually considered going for it one time, just because. Not because I liked him. It was just like; he was a boy my age and he liked me, and I guess that was enough for thirteen-year-old me. I didn't end up doing anything though. Which I'm glad off. I know now that I would've regretted it. Anyway, I just left his group at some point. He could still be alive somewhere. But I'm not interested in him at all. He's kind of dumb," Clementine explains, and Louis' expression clears a bit.

_God… How does Clementine not notice that Louis is literally head over heels for her? The guy should've thought about this before kicking her out. Good riddance, Louis._

"We still need you answer, Clem," Violet says with a mischievous grin.

"I'd… marry Ruby. Definitely."

"Okay… interesting," Violet answers with a tiny smile.

_Maybe she's into girls after all? Bisexual? Must be. Or maybe she just hasn't given it any thought and just simply doesn't care. Whatever, I'm overthinking this. But then again, that's in a gay's nature._

"Then… I guess I'd fuck Louis and kill Gabe. I don't really know Gabe anymore, so yeah," Clementine says as she shrugs.

"DAMN! I GET A FLIP!" Louis cheers and the entire circle bursts out laughing, including Clementine.

"…What's a flip?"

The circle goes dead silent and everyone turns to AJ.

"Uh…"

"I mean…"

"Looks you're gonna have to give him the talk, Clemster."

"Shut up, Louis," Clementine says, just before pausing for a second. Probably to think about how she was going to explain sex to a five-year-old, or whether it would be smart to even explain in the first place.

"Okay... I can try to explain, I guess. I don't really understand too much if it myself, because, you know. I haven't had it myself," she says as a small blush creeps on her face. But she continues, nonetheless. "So, most commonly it's a boy and a girl that have sex. Boys have penis and girls have a vagina. The boys have seeds, called semen, and with that they can impregnate a girl, so a baby will come. But to impregnate her, the boy needs to put his penis inside the girl's vagina. That's called sex. And… y'know. A girl's vagina is in the same spot as a boy's penis is."

AJ's face scrunches up for a bit, trying to process all the new information. Violet was actually impressed with how Clementine handled the situation. She managed to bring most of the information without having it come off as something that's weird or awkward.

"So, you just said that you'd want a baby with Louis?" AJ asks innocently.

"Oh, hell no. That's not what I said," Clementine laughs. "It's was a hypothetical, uh, _what if_ situation. And you don't just have sex to have babies. People also do it because it's fun. In fact, most people that have sex don't try for babies most of the time."

"Huh, okay. Could you make babies with Violet?"

Violet immediately turns bright red and hides her face behind her hands as Clementine visibly cringes.

"We'll talk about this more later, okay goofball?"

"It's AJ. And okay."

"Well, that became a lot more awkward than intended," Louis says as he hands Clementine the stack of cards. Violet takes one, and she has a six of hearts. Probably not the highest, but not the lowest either. Everyone turns around their cards and Clementine had the highest, while Aasim had the lowest.

"Definitely a dare," Clementine smirks as her gaze meets Aasim's.

"Ugh. Do your worst," Aasim replies.

"Right. I dare you to swap shirts with Louis."

"Uhm, what?"

"You heard me."

Aasim just looks at her while confused but did as she asked. He took off his shirt, throwing it at Louis while Louis did the same thing. The boys were both standing in their bare chests.

"I see what you're doing," Louis grins as he looks down at his own body. While Violet doesn't like-like boys, she couldn't deny that Louis had one hell of a body underneath that stupid coat of his.

"Ugh, no. I'm not a weirdo. I just want you two to feel uncomfortable in each other's clothes," Clementine explains, but Louis throws her a wink, signifying that he wasn't buying her story in the slightest. They both sat down and everyone grabbed a card again.

"Okay… let's see. The winner is Aasim, and the loser is… AJ," Louis says as he observes everyone's cards. Aasim thinks for a second or two. Obviously, he couldn't ask AJ anything sexual, which was basically the reason everyone played this game in the first place.

_Sex is like the only interesting thing there is in a teenager's life… Man, I could use a good shag right now. Wait, what?_

"Okay, I got one. Truth. What's something that you pretend to hate, but you actually love it?" Aasim asks AJ, who didn't even need to think about an answer as he immediately blurts it out.

"The nickname Clementine gives me. Goofball. It's really silly but it always makes me feel safe and she's called me it ever since I was little," he explains.

Violet looks over at Clementine and sees the girl smiling brightly at AJ, and she could swear she could see some tears forming inside her eyes. While Violet, of all the kids, had seen Clementine's soft side the most, it was still weird seeing the usually hardened survivor so emotional and vulnerable sometimes.

"Now, THAT is just adorable," Louis comments as he lets everyone grab a card again.

"Yeah. Not just that, but it's incredible how amazing Clem is at being a mom. She's still so young compared to all other parents on this planet and she's doing a better job than most, if not all of them," Violet compliments, to which Clementine lightly blushes.

"I'm not that good of a parent," she mutters under her breath as she hides her face behind her arms.

"Yes, you are. Look at AJ. Is there anything you'd change about him?" Violet asks as she takes a card.

"What? No! Of course not. Why would I want to change anything about him?" Clementine asks somewhat defiantly.

"Then that means that you raised him right. If your kid is perfect in your eyes, that means you did everything you could the way you wanted to," Violet says as she puts her hand on Clem's shoulder. She feels the brunette tense up, but she quickly relaxes into the touch.

"Thanks, Vi. It means a lot," Clementine says with her face still buried in her hands in embarrassment. She doesn't take compliments very well.

The blonde understands why Clementine acts like this. Clem just wants her kid to be prepared for everything, to be capable and to be smart. She wants him to be better than she ever was and grow taller and stronger than she ever was. That's a high bar to set, so it'd make sense if she was worried all the time, thinking about whether she should have done something different. You can't know if you thought him right about certain things or situations unless he finds himself inside one. And seeing as this is an apocalypse, not teaching him enough could just be the death of him.

But AJ made it this far already, and Violet could already tell he was going to be more capable than anyone inside their group ever was. Hell, he's six years old and already more mature than Louis. That's not really a high bar to pass, though.

"Look at Violet being all open and sentimental," Louis comments cheekily.

"What? Can't I be nice?" Violet retorts.

"Apparently, I never knew," Louis grins.

"Dude, if you're gonna try to be a smartass you have to be smart first. Otherwise, you're just an ass."

"Ouch! Shut up, filthy dyke!" Louis retorts playfully.

"As long as you follow suit, cocksucker."

"You're such a meanie, that shit hurt."

"It fucking better."

Violet looks at Clementine, who has a puzzled look on her face.

"What is it, Clem?"

"What's a dyke?" she asks.

_OH SHIT OH FUCK._

"Uh… just something Louis calls me. Don't worry about it," Violet says as she scratches her neck.

_Yikes… awkward._

Louis clears his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Anyway, Vi. I think it's just weird that you _only_ act this way around Clementine. Any particular reason? Because I sure as hell wouldn't have the _sliiightest_ idea," he fake ponders as he puts his index finger on his chin.

"I swear to God, Louis. If you don't shut up, I'm telling her the story of how Geoff died."

"You fucking wouldn't," he says.

"Try me."

"Who's Geoff?" Clementine asks.

"Vi, I swear to God, if you tell h—"

"Geoff is, I mean, _was_ Louis' pet turtle. After he got sent to this shithole, his dad sent him the turtle because he did feel _somewhat_ bad for him. Anyway, Louis got his pet turtle, but he thought it was a _stuffed fucking animal._ He put Geoff on a shelf in his room and it sat there for fucking weeks. Only after it died and started rotting and smelling like shit, he realized it was an actual animal."

"That's… interesting," Clementine says with a snicker.

"Yup, but that's not all. He obviously didn't want to upset his dad even more, so he kept making up stories about how he had named it Geoff and how it was it was really enjoying its time with him. His dad never found out," Violet finishes as she looks at Louis with a satisfied grin. The boy just hides his face in embarrassment, something he usually never did.

"It's… not that bad," he mutters.

"It's not that bad? You let the poor thing sit on that shelf for fucking weeks with only its own shit to feed on, you fucking cuntpuddle!" Violet laughs while Clementine just shakes her head at Louis in disappointment.

"Louis, after all of this, how can I trust you to keep AJ safe for me?" she asks with a serious expression, but Violet could see the sparkles in her eyes. She was just messing with him, but Louis didn't seem to catch onto that. Maybe she isn't so oblivious to Louis' crush after all… Louis immediately went wide-eyed.

"Because he's a kid! Not a turtle!" he quickly exclaims.

"I'm watching you, Louis. You better watch out," Clementine snickers as she narrows her eyes at him.

"I bet he watches you too while you're not looking," Violet whispers so only Clementine could hear.

"Vi, no! Gross!" Clementine chuckles as she shoves the blonde with her elbow.

"Anyway, onto the next round, ladies and gentlepeople!" Louis exclaims as he lets everyone grab a card once again. Violet looks at her card and sees that she was most likely going to be on the losing end this time.

_Please don't let Louis win, please don't let Louis win. Anyone but Louis, please._

"I win!" AJ exclaims.

_Oh, thank god._

Violet lets out a huge sigh of relief as she looks over to the little boy who was triumphantly holding up an ace of hearts.

"You understand the game, right goofball? You get to ask Violet a question now," Clementine explains.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. I'm not stupid," he says before drifting off into deep thought. The blonde wonders whatever is going on in AJ's head right now. Whatever it was, it had to be something very childish, right? He wouldn't ask her question about sex or something.

"Violet, have you ever had a boyfriend?"

_Oh shit, oh fuck. ABORT MISSION._

"I-uh… No, I haven't."

"Why not?"

Violet could see Louis trying his damn hardest not to burst out laughing at that very moment, while Clementine just watches her with an amused grin on her face. Clementine didn't know she was gay, either.

"I just… haven't, I guess."

"Huh, okay."

_Well, that went a lot better than expected._

"Do you ever want a boyfriend?"

_Fuck._

"What are you getting at, AJ?" Louis jokes as he narrows his eyes at the boy. "I could already see it happening. AJ and Violet on their big wedding day, walking down the aisle, holding hands and ready to kiss to be bonded for life until death does them part."

"Louis, no!" Clementine cringes. "Just don't even say that, please."

Louis just shrugs and turns his attention back to Violet, who was still trying to come up with a reasonable answer. She's just really fucking gay, how else is she supposed to say it?

_I mean, I'm not ashamed of being gay. But Clementine doesn't know, and it could make shit really awkward if she isn't into girls at all… Then again, why do I care? If I keep it hidden nothing will ever happen, and if she's into girls, maybe it'll even have a positive effect. Fuck it._

"No, I don't even want a boyfriend," Violet starts, getting confused looks from both Clementine and AJ. The rest of the kids around them seem unfazed, as they obviously knew about Violet's sexuality, especially after having seen her with Minnie, even if that wasn't the most loving relationship. "And that's because I'm gay. I like girls, not boys."

Violet takes a deep breath after spilling something so personal to people she'd only known for a few weeks. She kind of expected Clementine to start lecturing her on how she shouldn't say stuff like that in front of AJ and how that wasn't appropriate, but instead felt a gentle squeeze on her shoulder.

"Thanks for being open. Makes shit a lot easier for him," Clementine chuckles. "And don't worry about me being mad or something. Nothing can change the friendship that we have."

_Friendship… *sigh*_

"Yeah, uh… no. You're welcome, I mean," Violet stutters. AJ looks to be in deep thought again.

"So, does that mean that you can have a girlfriend?"

"Yup, and I had one for some time," Violet answers without thinking, and she immediately feels her insides twisting as soon as the subject was touched. While she convinced herself that she was over Minnie, she still had this guilty feeling lingering in the back of her head. It was something that she just couldn't seem to get rid of. She just wishes that those feelings wouldn’t get in the way whenever she wanted to confess to Clementine. _If_ she even wanted to ever do that, that is. Violet is well-known for bottling up her emotions inside her for long time.

"Huh, okay. Cool," AJ shrugs.

"Look sharp! Time for the next round!" Louis says as everyone grabs a card _again._ Violet looks at her card and sees that she has a four of clubs. Clementine turns hers around and she has a two of hearts.

_Hopefully these fucknuggets will actually ask a normal question this time…_

Louis shows everyone his card, a king of diamonds.

"I got it. So, we've all been pretty rough on people around here, teasing and asking them about love. I feel it's time we keep up this trend! So, Clemster. Anyone here you _like-like_?"

_A normal question? What the fuck was I thinking…_

Clementine looks to be in deep thought for some time.

_That's better than a 'no' straight of the bat, I guess…_

Her face clears up a bit and she looks around the circle. 

"I… think so? Maybe? I don't know, actually…" she answers while turning bright red. Her answer sounded more like a question.

"It would seem that Clemmy's hormones are confusing her, the poor girl!" Louis teases as a grin is tugged at the edges of his mouth.

"Louis, shut up. Give the girl some space," Violet says, getting defensive over her crush who was clearly uncomfortable. "She obviously needs time to figure this shit out, so let's give her that. It's not right to just push for the information and pressure her about it."

"I don't think I've ever heard you speak such wise words, young lady," Louis comments as he squinches his eyelids. "Perhaps, there is a certain special someone you're willing to defend and go all out for?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Violet shrugs as she turns her face to Clementine again, who is just starting at her and seems to be in some sort of trance.

"Uh, Clementine? You okay?"

"I-what? Yeah, fine. Fine. Just thinking," she murmurs as she shakes her head and looks back at Louis, who was watching the scene unfold in front of him. He didn't look _too_ amused, but he was still smiling.

"I think that's a good place to call it," Louis casually says as he stands up from his seat, Violet standing up quickly after.

"Yeah, I'm just going to check the defenses from on top of the bell tower," the blonde says as Clementine was rising up from her seat as well.

"Need any help?" she asks.

_How could I say no to a pretty face like that?_

"Of course, if you want," Violet answers, trying to sound as nonchalantly as possible.

"You could always help me instead! I am on piano duty," Louis chimes in as he walks up to the two girls, receiving a death stare from Violet.

"Piano duty? Really?" Violet asks as she shakes her head. Maybe he wasn't taking shit as seriously as she thought.

_Not just that, but this asshole is about to fucking cockblock me too._

"Yup, I have a new project. But I need a second person."

"Well, whatever. I'm going to the bell tower. Join me if you wanna," Violet says before walking off. She doesn't hear anyone following her, even after a few seconds. A few more minutes pass, and she's still walking to the bell tower on her own.

Clementine had gone with Louis.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's just... Louis told me how he feels about me."

_Really, dude? She went to play the fucking piano with that dumbass? I guess that means she likes him, then… FUCK._

Violet feels herself tearing up as she stares into the darkness of the night. She slowly climbs to the top of the bell tower. While she tries her best to see the bright side of this situation, she couldn't help but feel absolutely betrayed by the way Louis denied her the quality time she could be spending with Clementine right now. The brunette would've joined her, had he not interrupted last second.

Violet couldn't bring herself to care about the walkers right now; she needs to blow off some steam. She walks towards the edge of the bell tower, where she always stargazes, and takes a deep breath.

"FUCK! FUCKING FUCK THIS SHIT!" she screams as loud as she could manage. She hears her voice echo through the forest as she starts breaking down, and a bunch of groans erupt from the forest. The crying of the walkers represent the agony Violet is currently experiencing better than anything else could.

With her negative emotions now amplified because of the walkers, she grabs the hammer that she had once used to fix up some parts of the bell tower. But now its purpose was to destroy. She starts slamming it into the floor with all of her force.

"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" she screams in between hits.

Violet had never lost herself like this. Usually when really rough things happen to her, she just shuts herself off from everything and just keep it inside. But she just couldn't press this into the back of her head; it'd explode if she did. It's just too much for her, all of it. She just wants to be together with Clementine, but she likes Louis. Of course, she does.

After having smashed the majority of the bell tower floor to bits and crumbles, leaving it looking like a gravel path, she just falls down on the spot where she always sits to gaze at the sky. Tears are streaming down her face as she looks at all the stars. The stars that usually cheered her up, only made her more depressed right now. How could those things look so beautiful, while the earth is so fucking shitty?

Violet thinks it's not fair that these stars get to look amazing unconditionally, while _she_ has to deal with all of this emotional bullshit that'd take months for her to get over.

The blonde stares at the earth's atmosphere for what feels like hours. Time feels as if it's crawling by super slowly, as it does when you're not doing anything. After some time, she feels herself calming down a little bit and her breathing went back from shaky to normal. She hears some shuffling just below the ledge of the bell tower, probably signifying that some form of wildlife was taking shelter there for the night. Usually Violet would go down to kill it so the school would have more food, but this night, she couldn't be arsed.

"Vi? You up there?" a voice all too familiar calls out.

Clementine.

But she sounds shaken up and upset. Violet could tell that something wasn't right. The blonde buries all of her emotions to where they can't be seen and walks towards the white archway of the top of the bell tower, where she can look down upon the bell that had fallen down many years prior. She looks down and sees Clementine standing outside the door.

"Yeah, right here. Is anything wrong?"

Clementine remains silent for some time, but Violet hears that she's still stepping around outside, presumably trying to find a way she could get up.

"...I'm fine."

"I can tell that you're not."

"Just… help me get up, please. Where do I go?"

"You walk inside through the only door on the right side and then just climb up using those metal bars and bricks sticking out of the wall."

"Sounds pretty dangerous to me…"

"Oh, trust me, it is. But what's more dangerous than that car of yours? Or walkers?"

"Okay, fair point."

Violet sees Clementine entering the bottom of the bell tower, and the brunette scans around the room to try and find the way up Violet was talking about. After Clem looked up, her eyes fell onto Violet and her gaze softened. Violet throws Clementine a small wave, which she reciprocates with a smile. But the smile looked a little too forced to Violet.

"I think I might need a little help. I don't really know where to go," Clementine says as her eyes dart towards the staircase that'd been broken for years now.

"Oh, right. You just have to climb up on _that_ side of the wall using those metal bars and some of the bricks. Then you just make the jump to that wood over there from the windowsill and then you should be fine. I have one piece of advice, though: try not to die," Violet jokes, getting a light chuckle out of Clementine.

"Thanks, I'll try my best."

The green-eyed girl watches as Clementine carefully climbs up the side of the wall, and she holds her breath for a bit when she sees the brunette going for the jump. She's able to release it in relief when she hears a loud thud and sees Clementine walking up to her safe and sound.

"Damn, soon you'll be a better climber than me," Violet jokes while playfully shoving the shorter girl.

"I mean, I am pretty amazing. I can't deny that," Clementine retorts with a small chuckle.

"Yeah… I know," Violet sighs as she sits down on the ledge where she'd been crying her eyes out not too long ago. The girl that had been the cause of her crying, was also the reason that those tears had dried now.

_Did her choosing Louis over me even really mean anything? Fuck, shoulda thought of that before I started crying like a little bitch…_

"It's nice up here," Clementine comments while she seats herself next to Violet.

Violet sees the brunette admiring the neo-classical build of the clock tower for a second. It's beautiful, white-stone walls and majestic pillars cast a shadow upon her face, but that doesn't stop the moonlight from sparkling in her eyes. Somehow, the sheer simplicity of the tower actually makes it look really intricate, and Clementine can't help but wonder how alluring the building would be if it wasn't worn down and covered in vines and ivy.

"Yeah, it really is. It's where I go whenever I need to blow off some steam or I just need some time away from all the others. Like I said before, I'm not really a 'people person.' But today I checked the defenses from here. Well, kind of, anyways," Violet says, frowning when she realizes that in fact all she'd done was cry over her broken lesbian heart.

_Louis does really raise a good point whenever he calls me a lesbian disaster… No regrets._

"Do you do it often?"

"Hm?"

"Come up here, to enjoy the peace and quiet."

"I used to do it every night. But now times are better, thanks to you," Violet silently admits, hoping that she didn't cross the border of Clementine's comfort zone.

Violet could swear that she heard Clementine's breathing hitch when she said that, but she's probably just imagining things. She's aware that Clementine is up here to spend time with her as a friend, otherwise she wouldn't have gone with Louis, but for some reason there's this weird tension hanging in the air that the blonde can't quite explain. It's not tense, or awkward. But it's not relaxed either. It's something totally new to her.

"Thanks, I guess. But it can't really all be because of me," the brunette murmurs as a response.

Violet looks over at Clementine, and it looks like her face is completely flushed. If the feeble moonlight had been just a _little_ bit brighter, she could've been certain about what she thought she was seeing. But still, just the _thought_ of Clementine becoming flustered over one of her complements sends Violet's heart absolutely wild. She feels the thumping in her throat, as if a horse was galloping in it as it made its way towards a mirage after not having drank anything for days.

Violet was pretty nervous, to say the least.

_Well, yes it can all be because of you. I'm a disastrous lesbian and you're fucking gorgeous._

"It kind of is all because of you," says Violet nervously as she hides her face in her hoodie.

Clementine doesn't respond. Is it because she doesn't know how to take compliments? Is it because Violet scared her off? Is it because she's having the same kind of panicky feelings as the blonde is having right now? Violet is clueless.

"Uh… anyway. You went with Louis, right? Why'd you come up here?" Violet asks, trying to make small talk after it had been quiet for some time.

"I mean… you know. You really think I'd wanna listen to him playing piano for longer than an hour?" Clementine responds, but something about her tone sounds off to Violet. Her forced, awkward chuckle was what gave it away.

The blonde narrows her eyes at the brunette. Clementine was acting way too casual about this entire thing. Usually they'd laugh at Louis' attempts at flirting and how they were never _quite_ it. But now, she just kind of shrugged it off.

"There's more to it, isn't there?" Violet asks with certainty.

Clementine looks at her feet guiltily and starts awkwardly fidgeting her hands. Even in moments where she's stressed, she still looks as beautiful as she always does to Violet. The way that her brown curls lightly flow in the small breeze and how her amber eyes with slight accents of honey-gold twinkle in the moonshine just make Violet's knees go weak.

"Sometimes I kinda hate that you're this observant," Clementine says with a light chuckle. "But yeah, you're right, I guess."

"You know you can tell me anything, right? Because if you don't, I failed my job as a best friend," Violet reassuringly says while she puts her hand on the brunette's shoulder.

Clementine tenses up in an anxious manner at the touch, but she quickly melts into it and lightly leans her head on Violet's shoulder, which sends the horse in Violet's throat into a gallop once again.

"I know…" she sighs while she starts absent-mindedly playing with Violet's hair.

_CLEMENTINE, PLEASE. I'm gay enough as is and you're only making it worse_ _…_

A short silence follows.

"It's just… Louis told me how he feels about me."

_Oh, okay. OH, OKAY. FUCK._

"He likes me, Vi. As in, _like-like_."

"Oh, uh… yeah, I mean. I figured. You can tell by the way he looks at you," Violet says in a shaky voice as she tries to hide her distress. "Are you two together now?"

Clementine nuzzles her face deeper into the crook of Violet's neck.

"No… I don't like him that way at all. When I told him that, he got so upset and he just… started playing the piano again. Started playing this really sad song… Marche Funèbre by a guy called Chopin. I don’t know why I remember that, that’s kind of random… Anyway, It was super awkward. He stopped talking and just played, so I came to you."

_Okay, cool... and now you're here with an angsty gay that feels the exact same way about you. How's that any better?_

"Damn, that… sucks, I guess? Sorry, I don't really know what to say to that," Violet murmurs as she starts mindlessly playing the hem of Clementine's jacket.

"You don't have to say anything. Thanks for letting me vent, and shit."

A silence fills the air after that small exchange of words. It's not as tense as it was before. Violet feels a lot more relaxed and at ease now that Clementine is practically snuggled up to her. Violet could sit like this for hours and not get bored.

"Violet?"

"Hm?"

"You said you had a girlfriend once, right?"

_Oh shit, oh fuck._

"Yeah, why?" Violet replies, trying to play it as cool as she could.

"It was Minerva, wasn't it?"

_UHM, WHAT._

"Uh… yeah. How did you know?"

"The shack. It has a heart with the initials of you two in it."

_FUCK._

"Oh, uh… yeah," Violet says as her faces flushes a deep shade of crimson red.

"Don't worry, I won't ask about her any further. It's just…"

Clementine pauses for a second.

"I'm sorry if this sounds stupid, but how do you know if you, you know… like someone?"

This side of Clementine was completely new to Violet. She was being so open, quiet and vulnerable. The exact opposite of the hardened survivor that she usually is. It feels so… pure? The blonde couldn't exactly find the right word for it.  

"I mean, you just kind of _know_ , I guess. Like, you always want to be with them, you get butterflies in your stomach whenever you're around them. Things like that."

"Oh… okay."

The comfortable silence of half a minute ago returns, and both of the girls just enjoy each other's presence for some time longer. Violet starts making up new constellations in her head, and she wonders if Clem is doing the same thing. The brunette opens her mouth as if she was going to say something, but she closes it with a small huff and looks at the ground disappointedly. She takes a deep breath and opens it again.

"…Vi?"

"Yeah?"

"I think… I think I like you."

_EXCUSE ME, WHAT?_

Violet immediately freezes up. Did she hear that right? She starts entering one of her signature panics that she always has whenever Clementine did anything flirtatious, but this was A LOT more than just flirty. She doesn't know what to say. Of course, she reciprocates these feelings. She had for a long time.

"Yeah, that's cool," Violet answers, immediately facepalming after.

_Really fucking smooth, Violet._

"I'm sorry… I should've have admitted that. It was bad of me to assume that you'd like me too simply because you're into girls…"

"No, no! I mean, I feel the same. Yeah, uh… I do, yeah. You just caught me by surprise," Violet quickly reacts, to which Clementine lets out a faint smile.

"Really? You're not just saying that because you feel bad? I wouldn't want you to do that."

"No, really. I've felt like this for a while now."

"Do I make you have butterflies in your stomach?" Clementine questions with a giggle.

"All the time. You have no idea," Violet answers as she gives Clementine a bright smile, the first one she was able to form after being caught completely off-guard.

Violet hesitantly hovers her hand above Clementine's. Yes, they were kind of snuggled up, but doing this would be the first 'step' she'd take. She takes a deep breath and lowers her hand, so it touches that of the brunette.

"Is this okay?" Violet nervously asks.

"Yeah. I like it."

They sit like this in silence for some time, simply enjoying each other's presence.

"So, are we… girlfriends?" Violet hesitantly asks while she uses her free hand to ruffle her own hair a bit.

"If you wanna be…"

"I'd love to, Clem."

The two of them stared to the stars, which now represented the start of something beautiful, rather than a brute contrast between Violet's rough emotions and their unconditional elegance. Meanwhile, Violet was attempting to process all the things that just happened. She just went from crying about her crush not liking her, to starting a relationship with her within twenty minutes.

_Just an average night for me_ _…_ _totally._

If Clementine was as serious about wanting this relationship as Violet was, it would be the start of a new chapter in their lives. The brunette just made Violet feel things she had never felt before, and it was confusing, but amazing at the same time. She couldn't wipe the grin she had on her face off of it.

But all the way in the back of her head, the thought of Minerva was still lingering. What if they ran into her again? What if Minerva immediately ran up to Violet and hugged and/or kissed her? How would Clementine take something like that?

It was definitely something the girls had to talk about at some point, especially because it was eating away at the blonde. If there was anything about Violet's relationship with Minnie was good for, it was that she learned that honesty and being open with each other was important. Her and Minerva always made up excuses and lies about small things, which ultimately led to the two becoming more distant and to their relationship slowly starting to deteriorate, even if neither of them realized. Violet did now though, and she wasn't going to let that happen to her and Clementine. She'd do anything to keep that immense trust that is in between them right now.

"Violet?"

"What is it this time, cutie?" Violet asks, sending herself into a blush when she realized the pet name that she'd given Clementine. She just hoped _once again_ that she didn't cross a border, but when the brunette started blushing uncontrollably and couldn't wipe the grin off her face, Violet couldn't help but start smiling herself.

"Stahp it, you're making me blush," Clementine giggles, but her face turned more serious after that. "It's just that… I'm completely new to this entire… _girlfriend_ thing. I don't really know things about… you know. Anything," she adds, her face turning even redder than it already was.

Violet knows exactly what Clementine is feeling at this moment. She'd felt the exact same way when her and Minnie started dating. Minerva had already fooled around with people before, but Violet had still been as pure as the driven snow.

"You could explain what sex is to AJ just fine," Violet lightly teases as she intertwines her fingers with those of her girlfriend's.

"That's different, Vi."

"I know, I'm just messing with you."

"Seriously though. How does one, like… kiss, you know?"

Clementine didn't mean for her question to come out so bluntly, so her ears immediately turn rose as she looks away from Violet, trying to hide her flushed face.

Violet feels just as dazed. She doesn't know how to react.

_Don't say it, Vi. Don't say it!_

"I-uh… I could show you…"

_FUCK._

Clementine instantly turns her face around, and Violet expected a defiant look on it, but was instead met with an excited smile.

"I… sure, if you want, I mean," she murmurs as she scratches the back of her neck. She had started her sentence really enthusiastically, but her voice became softer and more insecure as she neared the end of it.

Violet got completely overwhelmed with emotions for a few seconds. Processing all of this is a little difficult when you're entering and exiting gay panics every thirty seconds. She'd fantasized about this moment for weeks now. The fact that is actually about to happen made her heart flutter, but at the same time it scared her. What if Clementine doesn't like it and never wants to do it again? What if it's awkward? What if the brunette realized that she, in fact, doesn't like Violet in a non-platonic way at all?

The blonde pushes all doubt and hesitation towards the back of her head and takes a deep breath. She couldn't mess this up. She gently cups Clementine's cheeks and makes eye contact with her. Clementine's face is blushing beyond belief and she has her eyes crossed, looking at Violet's hand. The blonde lets out an airy chuckle at Clementine's dorky expression. You could definitely tell she was new to this.  

"Are you sure?" Violet gently asks.

Clementine nods. "Yeah, I'm sure."

Violet starts inching closer to Clementine and feels her tense up the as she gets closer. Violet puts her free hand on Clementine's hip and gently brushes her lips against those of her girlfriend, waiting for her to close the gap. She does.

Violet whimpers when they finally kiss. While they're both tense when their lips first meet, they both ease into it within a second as soon as they feel the electricity surging through their bodies. Violet had imagined that kissing Clementine would absolutely stunning, but in reality, it was a hundred times better. Violet gently squeezes Clementine's thigh, which leads to the brunette chuckling into the kiss. Neither of them ever wants this moment to end.

After a few more seconds, Violet breaks the kiss, not wanting to make Clementine uncomfortable in any way. Guess what? The stallion in her throat has returned once again, but now it feels like there is a thousand of them. Clementine snuggles closer to Violet and puts her head on her girlfriend's chest.

"…How did I do?" the shorter girl timidly asks, not making eye contact with the girl she's using as a cushion.

"It was absolutely perfect," Violet answers truthfully.

Clementine lets out a giggle of relief and wraps her arms around Violet's waist, pulling her even closer to her than she already is. It's these moments that the two of them fought for in this world. The moments filled with happiness, bliss and _love._

The two lie up there for a little while longer, simply enjoying each other's presence and making cute and flirty remarks every few minutes. The stars that shine upon them seem to be winking at them every few seconds, as if they knew that something wonderful had happened down there, on the bell tower next to Ericson's Boarding School of Troubled Youth. Something that would always be remembered.

"Violet? Clementine? You up there?"

Ruby's voice pierces through the silence, awaking the new couple from the trances. Violets lets out an audible groan while Clementine chuckles at her girlfriend's frustrated state.

"Shit-sticks… I guess it's time for your lookout shift. You've got it with AJ, right?" Violet asks with a sad voice. She never wants this moment to end, realizing that as soon as they leave the bell tower, it'd be back to fighting for their lives. Fighting off walkers, fighting off raiders, fighting everything that surrounds them, because that's what this world is.

"That's right. I should've probably gotten a little more sleep… I'm gonna be fucking exhausted after my shift," Clementine yawns while stretching her legs. She gets up on her feet and starts walking towards the same archway Violet had walked to before, where the way down is.

_I should really fix up the stairs sometime_ _…_ _even if it's gonna look like shit._

"Just… be careful okay? I don't want you overworking yourself," says Violet after she gets up from the ground herself. She follows Clementine, who is carefully descending the bell tower. Violet follows suit and just before she reaches the bottom of the tower, she looks over her shoulder, only to see Clementine staring at her intently.

"Enjoying the show, are we?" Violet flirts with a grin, making her girlfriend turn the deepest shade of red.

"Uh…no? Maybe? I'm sorry," she quickly mutters as an apology while she looks at the ground.

"Don't worry, I'd have done the same," says Violet casually, which makes Clementine hide her head in her hands.

Violet then returns to her common, timid self. Ever since her and Clementine got closer, some of her personality traits from before she fell into a depression after Minerva and Sophie 'died' started returning. One of which was being able to flirt casually whenever she'd have the 'upper hand' in the flirting battles, as she liked to call them. Whenever she didn't have an advantage though, she'd be the shy self that everyone around her is used to.

Clementine lets out a sigh as she raises her head from her hands. "It's just… I don't really understand. It's like I just want to look at you and be with you at all times. I've never felt like this before… it's so weird and scary and I don't know what to think about it," she says diffidently.

_You're really fucking gay for me. That's what it means, babe. Should I tell her that?_ _…_ _Prooobably not._

After thinking for a few more seconds, Violet decides that it'd be best to leave Clementine to figure out her feelings herself. She doesn't want to confuse her girlfriend any further, and the only person who can truly know what she's feeling, is _herself_. She's the one who gets to decide what her feelings are and how she feels about them, not Violet.

"And that's completely fine. Sometimes people just need time to sort out those feelings, and even though I'm pretty sure I know what it is, I'm gonna leave you to figure things out for yourself. And just so you know, I'm not going anywhere. Take all the time you need."

Clementine softly smiles at her. "Thanks, Vi. Anyway, I'm off towards AJ now. See ya."

She hesitates for a second, but plants a very quick peck on Violet's lips, catching both herself and Violet by surprise by her actions. The brunette lets out a soft giggle before she turns around and walks towards the lookout tower, where AJ was patiently waiting for her.

"Yeah… see ya," Violet murmurs to herself as she softly touches her own lips. She watches as Clementine navigates towards AJ, greeting some of the other kids on the way. Her majestic curls bounce up and down as she confidently traverses the courtyard, sending shivers down Violet's spine.

_I'm so fucking gay_ _…_ _I love it._

Just before Clementine climbs up to the watch tower, she turns around and looks at Violet. She throws the blonde a small wave and a seductive wink, nearly sending the blonde into a cardiac arrest.

_Holy. Fucking. Shit._

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave a Kudos if you enjoyed! :)
> 
> Weekly updates, every Sunday at 11.00AM GMT


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